This is incorrect. Often times manufacturers will lock down the systems that can report statistics and reset failures to only work with their proprietary tools. They will not sell these tools and force people to go to the dealer. After a while the dealer can close or not sell that tool anymore and now people have an expensive paperweight that caused tons of emissions to create.

This is often accused but it is already a violation of federal laws that have been around for ages. It is called obd and covers a lot more than emissions.

right to repair may cover more but it isn't nearly as useful for normal diagnostics.

Have you ever worked on a car?

OBD standards literally only require emissions controls to be openly diagnosed. The rest of the CEL codes can 100% be vendor specific. So when your body control module shits out, and you can't lock and unlock your doors anymore, you're fucked. When your ABS light comes on, and all you need to do is replace a $10 wheel speed sensor, you still need an expensive proprietary code reader to read the codes.

"OBD II is an acronym for On-Board Diagnostic II, the second generation of on-board self-diagnostic equipment requirements for light- and medium-duty California vehicles. On-board diagnostic capabilities are incorporated into the hardware and software of a vehicle's on-board computer to monitor virtually every component that can affect emission performance. "

Yes a lot of the primary engine functions affect emissions, but the majority of diagnostic codes on modern cars are not available to standard OBDII readers. Once you get outside of the engine, forget it. Every module in modern cars now is VIN-locked and can only be swapped in by a dealer, or some kind of cracked 3rd party software if you're lucky.

I used to work for a third party scan tool Maker. We got a lot more data than just the obdii codes by law. We did have to pay 'a reasonable price' which was around $100k so not in reach of people but nothing to a company.

we didn't use a lot of the data but I had it for weird systems.

I had to find on some strange forum the CEL codes to monitor my DPF. Otherwise I would never know when it is filling up and never be able to reach out a highway to allow it to clean nicely.

This shouldn't be obscure. But they keep saying "hey this is our intellectual property"

You are confusing OBDII for OBD - they are different. OBDII covers emissions and never was enough for most diagnosis. There are other laws in place - though I don't recall what they are.

OBD isn't enough anymore.

You are confusing OBD for OBDII. OBD was always enough, but also manufacture/vehcile specific. OBDII was required by law and never enough except for some really basic (but common) things.

Take Volkswagen vehicles (VW/Audi, mainly). Nearly every electronic module in the car that you'd want to replace has component protection, making it literally impossible for a non-dealer to replace it since you need access to VAG servers to get the token to code the module for the car VIN. I had this experience recently with a CAN bus controller module that just randomly failed. $3k at the dealer. I would have preferred to do it myself but there is no way.

VW didn't key components for a long time, but a VW Golf was uninsurable in certain cities in the Netherlands because airbags and navigation units were stolen multiple times per year in some instances. Sometimes the thieves waited just a few weeks until most cars in a neighborhood had replaced the stolen components and made another run...

I couldn't believe it when my wife's '16 GTI (base) needed a new battery, and I realized for non-base models, the BATTERY is coded and needs dealer programming to be replaced.

Our '08 Caravan had the ABS module die, and try as I might with 3 or 4 independent mechanics, had to go back to Dodge/FCA to get it reprogrammed for the car to accept the new module.

Yes, the battery needs coding to tell the car about its capacity, battery type, etc. to optimize the charging. Fortunately coding modules is not completely locked behind dealer-only tools (see VCDS https://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/VCDS.php), but it is very inconvenient for the non-enthusiast who probably doesn't want to spend $200 on a tool to code their battery.

I know about ross-tech, etc. and the "official" reason for it (I've been an enthusiast for 35 years). It's my wife's car who will not stand for any mods (she doesn't even shift into sport mode) so it would be wasted $$.

Why can other cars get away without this specific charging knowledge? Is it because , in true VW fashion, they specced the minimally-acceptable battery size and need to have optimized charging to mitigate the under-sized battery? Just like VW has under-specced wiring for decades.. Seems pretty suspect..

That is about theft. Chop shops won't steel the car for the ABS module.

I agree with that, more or less. Just wish it was more commonly doable outside of going to a chrysler dealer stuck in the 70s. Had to take our newer FCA van there for a head-rest recall. They insisted on a huge inspection to approve it, then weeks to order it, then lost the order due to the multi-dealer malware incident, etc, etc.. Even the headrest needed some kind of electrical hookup or something - I guess having it "pop out" in an accident let them get away without seat airbags or something.

This is the same dealership that, when I asked about "30K mile maintenance" for our '08 Van (with the venerable, proven 3.8 engine) recommended (in addition to oil change, obviously), spark plugs, coolant flush, transmission flush, brake fluid flush, etc. I.e. a $700+ service for a van 2.x years old. And most of those were NOT on the Dodge service requirements.